In Europe, drama has a history of more than two thousand years, and the age of movies is less than a century. But they are a pair of "sister art" closely related. American film theorist Howard. Lawson once said: "The structure and technique of film reflect a new stage in the historical evolution of the dramatic form." In his opinion, it is drama that provides a structural form for film. However, we must not confuse the two. As the author of the “Seventh Art Manifesto” pointed out in the Italian Canudu, “The first error that should be eliminated is the error of subordinating film to theater." In fact, film is composed of theater art. A comprehensive art of "new traits" born out of China. Both have "close relatives" and "specificity", and they are two independent art forms.
When it comes to "close relatives," since drama provides a "noble theme" for movies, the impact of specific dramatic works on movies cannot be underestimated. The dramas of Shakespeare's mature period are undoubtedly full of charm. According to statistics, as of 1970 alone, there were 3 "Othello", 2 "Hamlet", 3 "Macbeth", and 2 "Jules. "Caesar" and the two "King Lear" were taken by Lawrence. Oliver, Orson. Wells, Kurosawa Akira and Grigori. Film masters such as Ke Jingtsev have appeared on screens all over the world.
It can be said that the adaptation of Shakespeare's play into the history of the film is to adapt the film to the history of Shakespeare. Because the adaptation of the stage play, especially the works of art masters like Shakespeare, cannot be free from the shackles of the original play. George of the United States. Bruce Dong pointedly pointed out: "Some films adapted from Shakespeare's plays have failed to successfully adapt the fixed space of the stage to the space of the film, and they often appear dull and rapport." This is a common problem after the adaptation of stage plays into movies.
The least of this common problem and the "most thorough and most satisfying so far" adaptation is probably the attempt by the famous Japanese film director and playwright Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa Akira is one of the world's famous directors. He opened the door of the world with a series of masterpieces such as "Rashomon" and "Shadow Samurai", thus "bringing Japanese cinema into a new era." His films "Cobweb Palace" (1957) and "Chaos" (1985) adapted from Shakespeare's famous plays "Macbeth" and "King Lear" received widespread attention when they were released in the West. Influential people in the Western film industry agree that Kurosawa’s films are far better than Western films adapted from Shakespeare’s same play, both in terms of performance techniques and artistic achievements. The adaptation principle of "fixed space adapts to the space of the screen".
This article attempts to illustrate the fundamental changes in form and content from Shakespeare’s stage to Kurosawa’s screen by comparing "Spider Web Palace" and "Ran" with the original, and to prove why Kurosawa was successful of.
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general overview of the original works and adaptations. It is not difficult to see that although the two films "Cobweb Palace" and "Chaos" are based on Elizabethan dramas, the background of the story has moved from the medieval Scottish wasteland to the same period. In the Japanese archipelago, the characters are no longer the knights and kings of Europe, but the samurai and overlord of Japan during the Warring States Period. Although Kurosawa borrowed the plot of Shakespeare, it has given new connotations. Therefore, he did not simply copy the original work, but controlled the original intent and created a new chapter. His film is completely "Japanese". We will elaborate on this point later.
Here, let’s set aside the similarities and differences in content. As far as the form factor is concerned, the adapted version and the original work are two different forms of art. In the adaptation, in fact, it has been unable to identify anything translated from the original. Kurosawa gives the story a new look with his clever cinematic expression technique. The main reason why film leaves drama and becomes an independent art lies in the camera and the artistic possibilities it provides, the grammar and syntax of the picture organization, and so on.
In my opinion, the formal "specificity" between the adaptation and the original work actually reflects the different characteristics of the two "sister arts" of film and drama. Mainly manifested in three aspects:
First, intuitiveness-two different kinds of intuitive art
Generally speaking, drama and film are not audiovisual arts that create perceptual and intuitive images. However, the intuitiveness of the two is different: the main component of the drama is the auditory image-the lines of the characters, and all kinds of conflicts are mainly unfolded in the dialogue; while the film focuses more on the visual image-the external physical action, focusing on The unity of the characters and the natural environment, so as to obtain a real screen and film. These are two very different ways of thinking of theater and film artists.
In Shakespeare's script, there are enthusiasm or philosophical pentameter verses everywhere. Obviously, the most far-reaching significance of Shakespeare's plays lies in the dramatic poems and prose used to express actions and make them humane. This is related to the form of the stage in the Elizabethan era. This kind of stage has no setting, only a few props and occasional flags, so that it can see the change of location. Therefore, Shakespeare's stage maximizes the use of dialogue to achieve the purpose of explaining conflicts and promoting the plot, and dialogue has become a basic part of his plays. Even the third scene of the second act of "King Lear" is entirely composed of Edgar's large narration, which can be said to be an extreme proof of the theater's emphasis on auditory images.
But there is no doubt that although Shakespeare’s five-meter poems are beautiful, they do not match the visual image that follows on the screen. Film narration does not rely on the appeal of the lines, but on the material components of the world depicted. Kurosawa grasped this well. In the table book he wrote, he discarded dialogue as much as possible, but recreated the image of Shakespeare's poetry with a unique and carefully conceived visual image. For example, in "Ran", when Saburo Naoho (equivalent to King Lear’s young daughter Kodalia)’s sincere feelings for his father Wang Yiwen Xiuhu (King Lear) was expressed, the original method of completely using characters’ lines as an explanation was changed. , And adopted a detail:
"The midsummer sun illuminates the sleeping Xiuhu, and Saburo folds a few early-flowering lespedeza flowers to shade his father."
This is a very cinematic and intuitive lens, which is silent at this time. Sound.
Kurosawa's characters "only speak when they cannot be expressed in any other way". In "Spider Web Palace", Toshiro Mifune (Macbeth) and Isuzu Yamada who play Asaka (Mrs. Macbeth) are like this. In fact, they seldom speak, and they "think in another way." A scene like "The Killing of Kings", in the original work, is carried out through the dialogue between the Macbeths and the Macbeths, although there are also characters coming and going on the field. But that is only a necessary part of the plot. And in Kurosawa Akira's desk book, there is no line in this section:
"25. The inactive room
Takeshi sits alone in the middle of the room. The candle flame beats, and the shadow of Takeshi also beats. The atmosphere is gloomy. Takeshi. Shi was blankly looking straight, his eyes covered with bloodshot eyes.
The blood on the wall guards. Wu Shi avoided it. On the floor, there was also a strange human figure made of blood. Wu Shi suddenly stood up anxiously, but stood sideways.
Qian Mao held it in his hand. The spear enters the room quietly. Wu Shi is in a dilemma. Asamao forces him to take the spear. The two are pale and stare at each other.
26. The sky
is like a crescent moon like a sickle, and the cuckoo cries in bursts, passing by.
27. Inactive. room
looking at when Wu empty room, wonderful smile revealing moment looking at the shallow Mao, then distracted to go out.
shallow Mao watched him go, then sit down, motionless.
- a long time -
was covered in blood, The terrifying Wu Shi came in, leaning on his spear, and then slid down and sat down. Asa Mao grabbed the spear from his hand and walked out of the room.
28. Asa
Mao came in front of Guochun's row and held it carefully. The blood-stained spear was tucked into the hands of the sleeping samurai.”
Although the characters’ language was simplified to the limit here, Akira Kurosawa was obsessed with the indoor atmosphere, outdoor scenery, and Asakusa’s manipulation of Takeshi’s assassination of the lord. Her ambivalence and so on are all described incisively and vividly. it is more than words.
It can be seen that Akira Kurosawa has indeed completely transformed everything that Shakespeare expresses in words into a brand-new form composed of sound images, making his dramatic art more intuitive on the screen.
Second, the spatiality-the fixed and non-fixed
theatrical stage is only a space of tens of square meters, which is fixed. This requires that the theater space must be highly concentrated. The real dramatic action should have "fluidity", and the concrete scene as a practical space is fixed in the continuous development of the action. Therefore, the only way to change the space of action is to interrupt the action. It can be seen that the specificity and fixedness of the stage space, coupled with the constant distance and angle between the audience and the stage, have greatly restricted the space capacity of theatrical art.
But it is worth mentioning that the stage form of the Elizabethan era provided convenient conditions for Shakespeare to overcome this limitation. Since there is no realistic setting, he can frequently change the space by the way the characters exit the scene (with the hint of "the same below" at the end of each scene in the script) as he wants to form a "multi-scene" structure. Take "Macbeth" as an example. Although there are only two thousand lines, it is one of Shakespeare’s shortest plays, but its scenes range from the Scottish wasteland to Duncan’s camp, from Macbeth’s castle to the Palace of Ferris, and from the witch’s cave to In Benaim Forest, the location of the event has been transferred 25 times. The similarities between this fluid structure and the movie are obvious, which provides extremely favorable conditions for Kurosawa's change. But despite this, the action space of each play in Shakespeare's play is still fixed, and it has not completely got rid of the limitation of the fixed space of the drama.
In contrast, we can't see this limitation at all on Kurosawa's screen. This is because the space of film art is much more free than drama. Just like Marcel. As Mardan pointed out, "Film becomes an independent art form, starting from the day when the camera can move freely". In film, the first result brought by the camera as a visual subject is to break the fixed space of drama art and form its own concept of space. The "spatial montage" formed by the combination of lenses combines the fluidity of action with the transformation of the environment, and the space capacity of the screen reaches its limit.
For example, in Kurosawa Akira's table book, from the wasteland to the forest, from the castle to the room, the shots of different scenes are quickly switched. Kurosawa's shooting scene always uses several cameras with different distances and angles. Through editing, the unique technique of frequent interlacing of distant scenes and close-ups is formed, so that the development of the character's movement is integrated with the flow and transformation of the environment. For example, in "Spider Web Palace", Washitsu chased down the young master Kunimaru (Malkom) and Minister Noriho (Macduff) after killing the king:
"37. Kunimaru and Noriho
hurriedly fleeing in the forest . The
chasing Wu Shi and his subordinates. The
fleeing Zebao, and the tense face of
Kunimaru who swears to flee from bad luck. The asura-like image of Wu Shi in the chasing. "
Such a dynamic movement process. , Is simply unable to accommodate the fixed space of the stage. In addition, the film’s depiction of war scenes is magnificent and vivid, which is unmatched by stage space. For example, "Ran" depicts the scene of Xiuhu being attacked by Taro and Jiro:
"The smoke and dust splashed by the fire bomb hitting the battlement.
The arrows, arrows, and arrows shot on the wall.
The fireball flying in the black smoke is on fire. The fragments of flag banners flutter with the wind."
This is a set of scenes that cannot be reproduced on theatrical stage. It can be seen that, as the American contemporary film theorist Nicol has pointed out, in terms of "trying to replicate reality," drama can hardly compete with film.
It can be said that we are "from a static audience to an active observer" with the help of the function of the camera.
Third, temporality-
the realism of continuous and non-continuous dramatic actions requires the realism of stage time-that is, the duration of the ongoing action should be consistent with natural time. Since a play only has two or three hours of performance time, coupled with the fixed space of the stage, it is required that the drama time must also be highly concentrated. However, although the time capacity of a play (act) is limited, the time capacity between scenes (acts) is infinite. This forms a special way of dealing with time in a drama: the method of splitting the scene (that is, interrupting the scene) Action) Compress the time span and expand the time capacity.
For example, in Shakespeare’s tragedy "King Lear", at the end of the first act, Lear just decided to live with his daughter's house, but at the beginning of the second act, he said: "I lived here for less than half a month. Did you abolish fifty of my guards all at once?" These ten days' time has quietly passed between the scenes. In "Macbeth", it took several months from the time the protagonist met the witch in the wasteland until he was killed by the crusaders. The "pure time" for the performance was also more than three hours, most of the time. They all flow between the scenes and the scenes. It can be seen that the use of drama writers and directors to expand the capacity of time lies in the inter-screen and inter-field, but time cannot be compressed within the scene.
On the contrary, the way of film art processing time is much more free and convenient, it can extend the range of compression time to the inside of each scene. As Einham said, a film artist can help "time montage", "from a whole period of time contained in a scene, only select the part that interests him the most", in a short shot transition, infinite Expand time capacity. For example, the explanations of the changing situation of the two wars at the beginning and the end of "Spider Web Palace" are expressed through the overlapping and drawing shots of three military envoys reporting the military situation. As for the time span between the shots. It was omitted. This kind of "time montage" is very similar to the split-screen effect in a drama, except that the camera switching is of course much more convenient than on-field, off-field, closed in a small red plastic screen, and opened clothes.
At the same time, in each montage paragraph, as a whole, the action is developed; but the development of each character's action is often cut off, or inserted into the actions of other characters in the same scene, or inserted into actions that occur in different spaces. Another example is the "pursuing and killing" section of "Spider Web Palace". Although the overall action of "pursuing and killing" is developed, the individual shots show the escape and the pursuit respectively. The continuous development of action ceases to exist, which determines that the duration of action development is broken, which greatly expands the space-time capacity of the screen. This is the superiority of film over drama.
Above, I have discussed the different characteristics of film and drama art embodied by contrast from three aspects. Of course, film is much superior to drama in terms of "recreating reality", but we cannot say that drama is inferior to film, at least in terms of direct communication between actors and audience, film is much inferior. As two independent art forms, they each have their rationality of existence.
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If Kurosawa’s screen has only the above three differences compared to Shakespeare’s stage, then it is only a more successful "adaptation" at best, and it would not have produced such a huge impact on the world film scene. Reverberated. We say that "Spider Web Palace" and "Chaos" are "the work of a real film creator", precisely because they are "not an adaptation" but a transformation, which is a refinement of the original theme. They are "the most thorough and satisfying attempt to date". Therefore, Kurosawa Akira's adaptation art can be regarded as a "unique" re-creation.
Kurosawa's success should first be attributed to his attitude towards Shakespeare's original works. Kurosawa’s film scripts were all co-written with playwrights he trusted, and "Spider Web Palace" and "Chaos" were co-written by him and his old partners such as Xiaoguo heroes, who were directed and edited by him. The script is only after repeated scrutiny before it can be put into filming. Therefore, his transformation of the original work is thorough. He "relies on Shakespeare only as a film screenwriter who meets his requirements in imagination, not as a master of pentameter verses."
So, what exactly is Kurosawa's request?
The famous Japanese film theorist Iwasaki sums up Kurosawa Akira's creative characteristics as: "He wants to put people in a test tube and give certain conditions and certain stimuli to determine his reactions. This kind of research on characters. It’s his work.” Kurosawa is not a director who is directly inspired by living reality to create, but a director who understands reality through a very pleasant, typical and attractive complete story. .
Therefore, it is not difficult for us to understand why Kurosawa chose to bring Shakespeare’s two tragedies to the Japanese screen. "Such a huge film has been produced. It was Shakespeare’s two famous tragic stories that provided him with a delightful and typical "laboratory"-situation, and "experimental"-people, specifically, Takeshi Washizu (Macbeth) and A word show tiger (King Lear). It can be said that Shakespeare's plays provide materials that interest Akira Kurosawa and resonate wonderfully with his previous creations.
In "Macbeth", the inner conflict of the protagonist occupies a very important position. Under the combined action of the internal cause of personal power and ambition and the external cause such as the witch and Lady Macbeth, he embarked on the process of soul destruction. The hero who was famous throughout the country for his military exploits became a criminal of the nation's crusade against the king. Kurosawa Akira's Washizu Taketoki is a character based on Macbeth, and he blindly jumps into the destruction of fate, which is very similar to the characters in Kurosawa's previous works. The protagonists in Kurosawa’s previous works are mostly "a wolf"-like characters, such as the bandit Doyomaru in "Rashomon", the gangster Matsunaga in "Drunken Angels", and the policeman in "Heaven and Hell" Nagatokura and Shinkudai in "Red Beard" and Kuwata Saniro in "Bodyguard" and so on. They are absolutely faithful to their desires, for this reason, they do not hesitate to abandon the shackles of the country and family to become free and independent people, like a lone wolf. Kurosawa has no sympathy for the weak. He believes that the weak "guilty of not making themselves strong and working hard". He is determined to destroy the Japanese overly tamed slaves. Therefore, his works are "always full of roughness." Violent image". Human freedom is a continuous theme in this type of work. While "Spider Web Palace" is a variant of this type of work, Jiu Jin is a continuation of the "a wolf" character. From the point that he takes devastating actions to resist fate, he can be regarded as a Kurosawa Akira. The strong.
In "Ran", Kurosawa borrows the story of King Lear and combines it with Japanese tradition to direct a tragedy in which father and son brothers kill each other, and finally the entire family is destroyed. The protagonist Xiuhu is a cruel and ruthless overlord. He is capable of plundering the land and devouring the weak, even his own in-laws. His abdication in old age has become an excellent opportunity for his eldest daughter-in-law, Feng Jun, to avenge the country. She provokes the divorced Xiuhu father and son, and finally leads to an end that is full of blood and blood. Before the filming started, Akira Kurosawa claimed to "use God's gaze to look down on this human tragedy." This tragedy embodies another theme of Kurosawa's works-the struggle between good and evil. Japanese film critic Michitaro Tada once commented on Kurosawa Akira, "This man fought face-to-face with the evil thing, one of the evils. He has evil in his heart, and he is extremely painful to try to eliminate this evil." In Kurosawa's view, evil is a kind of power. The reason why evil is rampant in human society is caused by the inability of empty good to suppress evil with the power of action.
What "Chaos" shows is exactly this kind of "exposing the ugly and cruel humanity.
The world that can't live! "(Saburo Xiuhu in the film) When we watch the tragedy of the destruction of the Xiuhu family, we do not feel sad or regretful. The outstanding feeling is the end of the retribution of good for evil. This kind of humanitarianism and the deep love for mankind is black. Zeming is “common to all other works.” This is also the motivation behind his ten years of brewing and determined to complete this blockbuster. It
should be emphasized that although Kurosawa created Washizu and Hidetora inspired by Shakespeare's plays , But they are by no means a simple copy of Macbeth and King Lear, but a new and fleshy image. On the stage of the drama, Shakespeare’s Macbeth uses a large number of gorgeous lines to express the contradictions in his heart, and is mainly based on the pictures. On the silver screen, the external pain that caused Washizu to destroy—ghosts, undead, terrifying scenery, etc., far exceeded the hard-line arbitrariness of the self, with overwhelming power. Washizu is active but not cut. Actual imagination, but this is by no means revealed in his words, but expressed as "a series of wheezing, humming, screaming and nasal snorting" and other "primitive physicality", "Macbeth's The mental state is attributed to almost pure irrational.” Asakata is also the case, Kurosawa made her childless pregnant and then miscarried, as a direct consequence of her daily fears that Washizu would kill the king once he usurped the throne. Therefore, "she was given a kind of pure physical power." In "Chaos", Kurosawa made a clever change to the main plot of the original work-turning the three daughters of King Lear into three of Xiuhu The son, added the plot of Xiuhu's grievances with Fengjun and Mojun, and the reincarnation of good and evil, making Xiuhu farther from a benevolent father and closer to a cruel feudal overlord. The original work is almost pure The good and evil of human nature in this film have risen to thinking about human beings; the original flogging of hypocrisy and ingratitude has developed here into a condescending condemnation of the extremely stupid fratricides; the original is used as the starting point of the plot. On Kurosawa Akira’s screen, the relationship between father and daughter has evolved into a cruel grievance and a frantic power struggle between father and son. Therefore, contrary to the “pure irrationality” of "Spider Web Palace", "Chaos" The theme is more rational than the original. However, whether more rational or irrational, Washizu and Xiuhu are completely different from their respective prototypes and become pure Kurosawa characters.
We say that Kurosawa's adaptation art is a "unique" re-creation, which is not only reflected in his creative changes to the original, but also mainly reflected in the high degree of artistic achievement of his film. Among all the films adapted from Shakespeare's plays, only Akira Kurosawa's tricks were transplanted to the Japanese background in the Middle Ages, and they were called "the best and most accurate film that expresses the spirit of Shakespeare's original works" by Western film critics. The reason is mainly due to the strong national style of Kurosawa Akira's screen. The more nationalized art, the more global significance it has. International movies pay special attention to Japanese movies precisely because of its unique national characteristics. In Kurosawa Akira's films, this is highlighted in the stylized performance of "Noh" and the influence of traditional Japanese art, which achieves a combination of strength and elegance.
Noh is a Japanese classical musical, originated in the 14th century, and reached its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries. The masked actors
perform stylized dance moves on a simple stage. Kurosawa likes Noh very much and is amazed at its originality. He pioneered the attempt to shoot movies in the form of Noh. In many of his films, the influence of Noh is clearly visible. Noh critic Toida Michizou once discussed the use of certain stylistic features of Noh in "The Spider Web Palace":
"This is seen in Yamada Isuzu ( played as Asakusa) staggering and kneeling when sitting down. The scene of Toshiro Mifune (played as Washitsu) is also seen when he walks from one room to another when he is plotting to kill the king, while Yamada Isuzu is worried and hopeful in the scene where he walks alone in the room with Noh-style music accompaniment. The witch’s use of spinning wheels to predict misfortune and fortune is also a traditional use of "Black Mound" (Noh repertoire); the costumes of the slain samurai are also traditional: they all wore short capes or battle skirts."
Indeed, in the scene of "killing the king" cited by the intuition in the previous discussion, Asama walked with the accompaniment of "no", using the basic acting skills of "no" to "grab the ground", while Washizu killed the king with his spear flat. Stepping back on the floor like a drum with your feet and walking back into the "inactive room"-this kind of musical instrument that uses the floor as a rhythm is the basic method commonly used in Japanese theater in Noh and Kabuki. Kurosawa has mastered this program as the most visually perfect beauty. As for Jiujin and Asama, they both let their fate slay them and act in accordance with the pre-arrangement of supernatural forces (the witch pre-pins the red small words), which is also common in Noh. Moreover, the actor stands with his head down, leaning forward slightly, staring at the non-existent space and ground with a stiff expression, which also reminds people of "neng" and "nengmen."
In "Spider Web Palace", Akira Kurosawa emphasizes the role of Noh masks. He uses different types of Noh masks to represent different roles: the samurai mask he gave Washizumi called "Haida" to express his inner fear; The mask of a dead beauty he gave to Asama called "Hikemi" represents the image of a woman about to go crazy; what he gave to Miki (Banke) was the mask of the noble ghost named "Secretary of the Guardian House". The witch in the forest was given a mask called "Yam". In the film, the realistic expressions of the actors are almost the same as those of the masks. In Kurosawa Akira's works, the witch-like woman who embodies a certain concept with a masked expression is an important image type. Asakusa in "Spider Web Palace" and Kaede in "Chaos" There are amazing similarities. They are all "women who have made men ethical shame with their outstanding and strong character", and they are spiritually superior and dominate the life of men.
In addition, Kurosawa’s film also reflects the Noh tradition in the character dialogue. To a certain extent, he
replaced Shakespeare’s poetic lines with stylized contemporary Japanese rhymeless language, “wherever poetry is used. , All make it conform to the traditional style of Noh lyrics." The scenes in "Macbeth" where the witch's pre-pink puts on the red small words are somewhat of a "vulgar comedy" taste, while the mysterious witch in "Spider Web Palace" Song:
"Life is like a morning glow
supporting one's body in the world
life is as short as a mayfly How
can I find my own suffering"
But it has a simple and elegant traditional style with Noh lyrics. In "Chaos", the philosophical singing of "Kuang Ami" (the imperial clown fool) is obviously more solemn and tidy than the witty tune of "Fool" in "King Lear," and has the charm of Eastern classical poetry.
The national style of Kurosawa's films is not only reflected in the use of Noh techniques, but also in the influence of Japanese traditional art. One of the characteristics of Kurosawa's later works is that he loves Japanese traditional visual culture very much. He intends to make the film's clothing, art work, and modeling closer to fine art works, mobilizing rich film methods to show the beauty of painting-like form. The films of this period are the best examples of using simple sets to show the consciousness of traditional Japanese beauty. This is related to Kurosawa who was a painter when he was young, and he had a unique view of Japanese traditional art-"the greatest simplicity has the greatest art". For example, the "Inactive Room" in "Spider Web Palace" only has the floor and wooden walls. The dim walls are stained with blood stains of the past city lord that cannot be worn away, creating a mysterious and pure beauty. In "Chaos", on the lonely wasteland, several military accounts decorated with characters, rattan scrolls, Ayabe and other hegemonic emblems also make the pictures refined, pure and simple. The architecture of Japanese techniques and the costumes and armors of warriors in the Warring States period shown in these two films are also very fascinating. Kurosawa is proud of this: "I think it is a world that can boast to the whole world that Japan has its own unique beauty." This feature is similar to the stage format of Shakespeare's play.
The composition of Kurosawa's film is also obviously influenced by traditional Japanese art. The unique composition method of Japanese art is to leave a large blank space, and draw people and objects in a very limited area. Akira Kurosawa, a former painter, naturally adopted this tradition when arranging the composition of the film. In many films, he painted the pictures first. For example, "Chaos" painted hundreds of pictures one by one, and they were all painted with oil painting. He also has strict instructions on the posture of the characters when shooting, because if the actor enters an incorrect position and leaves the frame, the picture will lose balance. The corners of the picture are left blank, and the characters stare at the void space, which is the same as the traditional posture of the characters in ancient Chinese and Japanese landscape paintings. As a variant of this method on the screen, clouds, wind, rain, and sunlight are used extensively to make the details of the screen blank. For example, there are many location scenes in "Spider Web Palace", and these scenes are heavily foggy. In the scene at the beginning of the film showing the panoramic view of Cobweb Palace, the fog is so dense that it is almost impossible to see what is there. Then there was the scene of Washizu and Miki losing their way in the forest. Then there was a downpour, lightning and thunder, the shower stopped abruptly, the ground was rippling with thick fog like clouds, and then the old spinning wheel appeared. Witch. Fog and rain cover up the corners of the picture, and all you can see is the vague position and the outline of the character. This composition method is obviously a traditional method shared by Chinese and Japanese art. Fog is used to symbolize privacy and mystery. Therefore, the characters who appear from the fog and rain all have a mystery that is very different from the real people. The originality of Kurosawa lies in his use of strong sunlight for the same purpose. His beautiful pictures and the changes of light and shadow under the fog and sunlight have repeatedly demonstrated his unique accomplishments in traditional Japanese art.
Kurosawa had a terrible experience in his boyhood-September 1st in the 12th year of Taisho (1923), a light green tremor in the land of Kanto, 13-year-old Kurosawa stood as a survivor with corpses On the bank of the Sumida River, he realized "the extraordinary power of nature." Therefore, natural raging became the subject of many Kurosawa films in the future. His films make extensive use of natural scenery and climatic phenomena, as if the powerful nature has also become the main image of the theme of the film. For example, the "Spider Foot Forest" in "Spider Web Palace" "represents Jiu Jin's mind is a labyrinth" (Kurosawa Akira), which has been personified by Kurosawa Akira. Sometimes, this raging nature also plays a role in setting off the development of the storyline. In "Chaos", with the development of the plot of Xiuhu, father and son, that the divisions between Xiuhu and his sons enter the house together, and the confrontation will eventually lead to fratricide, the film shows us a series of good and bad clouds: the beginning of the film "Dense Clouds Manju," It is rushing...there are signs of a thunderstorm in the distance, and the sound of thunder is coming from a distance."The picture indicates that there will be an unusual event; when Xiuhu handed over power to Taro, and drove away sincerely loving him During the time of Saburo, "the evening cloud aidai will cover the setting sun, the setting sun is like blood, and even makes people feel it is an ominous omen." When the tragedy finally happened, "the black cloud pounced like a dragon that swallows people. However, in a flash The black cloud was torn into pieces, tumbling and running wildly. Large raindrops hit, lightning and thunder." This group of clouds of different shades, unpredictable and metaphorical colors, intersects with the sun and the vastness of light and dark. And the silent, desolate and lonely grassland together constitute a kind of effect that God is also looking down on this human tragedy. This vigorous and simple beauty "has a connection with a certain Japanese art tradition that attempts to express the great supernatural power with the power of simple lines." (Tadao Sato)
In short, Akira Kurosawa is based on European and American film creation methods. Re-creatively adapted Shakespeare's plays, and at the same time successfully described the European-style strong individualistic character image according to Japanese artistic creation techniques, giving the long-established oriental warrior in the costume drama a Western-style free and leisure image. That is to say, he not only reinterpreted the European and American film creation methods, but also revived the ancient Japanese traditional art. And "Spider Web Castle" and "Ran" are successful examples of the fusion of Japanese and European traditions. The "glue" between these two traditions is Kurosawa's creative adaptation art, which is his unique talent.
There have been many adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, and the British film master Lawrence, who won the Oscar for his "Hamlet" (Chinese translation "Prince's Revenge"). Oliver once said with deep feeling that putting Shakespeare's great stage script on the screen is an artistic compromise. The direct adaptation of Shakespeare’s works means to solve the compromise problem as far as possible without harming Shakespeare nor the film itself. From the discussion in this article, we can conclude that Kurosawa Akira's art of adaptation is an example of successfully resolving this compromise, and it is a unique attempt.
From the aesthetic point of view, "Spider Web Palace" has reached an unprecedented level of refinement; while "Chaos" is considered to be the work of Akira Kurosawa's film art, representing the highest level of his later artistic creation so far. They transform the original work thoroughly. They represent the original work in a true and cinematic manner, and are no longer just adaptations. Compared with Shakespeare's poems, they are poems cast in another mode of expressive means. This expressive means—that is, movie language, has the same huge potential power as Shakespeare’s dramatic poems. Therefore, Kurosawa Akira's work is the work of a true film creator and a masterpiece of independent value.
If it is said that in the Japanese country least affected by Shakespeare’s unstoppable language, his plays were most satisfactorily put on the screen, then the genius and creative contribution made by Akira Kurosawa cannot be tolerated. ignore.
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